Today, since the November 1st applications are due tomorrow, both of us finished up some Baylor apps and other college apps.

We did a bit of research for our thesis as well, and found this info:
http://www.eurostemcell.org/factsheet/embyronic-stem-cell-research-ethical-dilemma

The ethical dilemma

Embryonic stem cell research poses a moral dilemma. It forces us to choose between two moral principles:

• The duty to prevent or alleviate suffering
• The duty to respect the value of human life

In the case of embryonic stem cell research, it is impossible to respect both moral principles. To obtain embryonic stem cells, the early embryo has to be destroyed. This means destroying a potential human life. But embryonic stem cell research could lead to the discovery of new medical treatments that would alleviate the suffering of many people. So which moral principle should have the upper hand in this situation? The answer hinges on how we view the embryo. Does it have the status of a person?

Further within the article is more info on the ethics and the debate over whether or not this type of research is ethical.

Today while looking up info on stem cell research, we came across another website with a plethora of information on the ethics of the process.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stem-cells/

The outline includes:

1. The Ethics of Destroying Human Embryos for Research

• 1.1 When does a human being begin to exist?
• 1.2 The moral status of human embryos
• 1.3 The case of “doomed embryos”

2. The Ethics of Using Human Embryonic Stem Cells in Research

3. The Ethics of Creating Embryos for Stem Cell Research and Therapy

4. Stem Cell-Derived Gametes

Bibliography

Academic Tools

Other Internet Resources

• Cited Resources
• Other Resources

Related Entries

This will be very helpful, as it is a Stanford article and the information here is sound. We will be using this info in our presentation.

http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/pros-and-cons-of-stem-cell-research.htm

This is one of our sources we found useful.
An excerpt from this site:
Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - Embryonic Cells The pros and cons of stem cell research come to the surface when we examine the third source of stem cells - embryonic cells. Embryonic stem cells are extracted directly from an embryo before the embryo's cells begin to differentiate. At this stage the embryo is referred to as a "blastocyst." There are about 100 cells in a blastocyst, a very large percentage of which are stem cells, which can be kept alive indefinitely, grown in cultures, where the stem cells continue to double in number every 2-3 days. A replicating set of stem cells from a single blastocyst is called a "stem cell line" because the genetic material all comes from the same fertilized human egg that started it. President Bush authorized federal funding for research on the 15 stem cell lines available in August 2001. Other stem cell lines are also available for research but without the coveted assistance of federal funding.

So what is the controversy all about? Those who value human life from the point of conception, oppose embryonic stem cell research because the extraction of stem cells from this type of an embryo requires its destruction. In other words, it requires that a human life be killed. Some believe this to be the same as murder. Against this, embryonic research advocates argue that the tiny blastocyst has no human features. Further, new stem cell lines already exist due to the common practice of in vitro fertilization. Research advocates conclude that many fertilized human cells have already been banked, but are not being made available for research. Advocates of embryonic stem cell research claim new human lives will not be created for the sole purpose of experimentation.

Others argue against such research on medical grounds. Mice treated for Parkinson's with embryonic stem cells have died from brain tumors in as much as 20% of cases.¹ Embryonic stem cells stored over time have been shown to create the type of chromosomal anomalies that create cancer cells.² Looking at it from a more pragmatic standpoint, funds devoted to embryonic stem cell research are funds being taken away from the other two more promising and less controversial types of stem cell research mentioned above.



This source can help greatly with the ethics and the research process.

I was not able to post on Friday due to technical difficulties, but we have finally received a reply from one of our prospective mentors, and has agreed to help us on our senior thesis. We have emailed him again to see when or how we can contact him in a more efficient manner. We have a good list of sources from which to build our knowledge and presentation, however, his help can be very beneficial. As for our second mentor we are still waiting for a response. Our next priority now is to draft the survey and review it with our statistics teacher.

Today was picture day, and we stood in line forever trying to get our pictures taken. After, we worked on college apps and I replied to one of the people who Dr. Ravnik suggested. However, the other person who I contacted has yet to reply, which is worrying. Thankfully one person has responded, and if we get at least one mentor we should be alright.

Dr. Ravnik has contacted me back, providing the emails of two people at UT Southwestern. One specializes in the ethics of the research, which is exactly what we need. The other actually does research in the lab, and could aid us in understand scientific perspectives. I have emailed both of them today, requesting any assistance they can give. Hopefully they respond soon, as we really need a mentor/mentors.

Today, several of our peers presented their thesis projects. Now that we have seen what is somewhat expected of us we can prepare for our presentation on Wednesday. Our power point can now be revised and edited to make it adequate for this presentation.

Sorry about this post, we worked on our thesis after school. However, posting completely slipped our minds so we're posting now.

We finished up the annotated bibliography, adding to our sources until we had 11. The annotations we wrote will help in the future to remember what each source is for and help to organize the info easily.

Due to the storm, it was hard to post online also caused problems, since I lost internet for a while.